Irakli Tsereteli
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Irakli (Kaki) Tsereteli (1881–1959) was a Georgian politician, one of the leaders of the Russian and Georgian Social-Democratic Labour Parties (Party of Mensheviks). Born in 1881, in Georgia. His father Giorgi Tsereteli was a famous Georgian writer. He became a lawyer, studying in Moscow where he became politically active.
Tsereteli was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and at the party's 1903 congress in London sided with Julius Martov against Lenin by becoming a Menshevik, opposed to Lenin's Bolsheviks.
Tsereteli became editor of a pro-Menshevik publication but decided to move to Germany to escape increasing harassment from the authorities. He returned to Russia during the 1905 Revolution and was elected to the second Duma, emerging as a leading Menshevik. On the dissolution of the Duma, Tsereteli was exiled to Siberia.
Tsereteli returned to Petrograd after the February Revolution. He headed the Petrograd Soviet from late March and joined the cabinet of the Provisional Government in May as Minister of Post and Telegraphs. After the October Revolution Lenin ordered Tsereteli's arrest so he remained in Georgia for the duration of the Russian Civil War.
In 1918–1921 Tsereteli was a Member of the Parliament ("Dampudznebeli Kreba") of the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
In February–March, 1921 Georgia was occupied by the Soviet Russia's Red Army. Tsereteli decided to leave for France, later emigrating to the United States where he died in 1959.